Ancient Rome developed from a small prehistoric settlement on the Tiber River in Latium in central Italy into an empire that encompassed all of the Mediterranean world, and the civilization that resulted formed the basis for modern Western civilization. The genius of the Romans lay in the military, in government administration, and in the law, and they valued crafty diplomacy as much as military discipline. The Romans conquered Greece, adopting Greek culture and transmitting it to the medieval world. Unlike the Greeks, they did not develop a philosophical theory of state and society. Instead, they were the practitioners of power and law, and Roman civil law, which reached its peak under the emperors, excelled in precision of formulation and logic of thought. However, it was a law of inequality and social prejudice which also became part of the Roman heritage. Roman political institutions remained relatively stable during the imperial centuries and then disintegrated rapidly as the empire collapsed.
Greece developed a number of lasting disciplines--the drama, philosophy, politics, and so on. The origins of the drama are evident in the works of Aeschylus, and these plays center on Greek religious thought. The Suppliant Maidens, for instance, shows how the Greeks saw the gods not as some distant concept but as operating in daily life. The Danaids, or daughters of Danaus, are dedicated to Artemis, and Artemis as a daughter of Zeus is chaste. She is a virgin, as are the Danaids, and they intend to remain so in dedication to Artemis and her cult. They describe marriage in terms of force, with men forcing themselves on women to take from the women what they will not willingly surrender. They compare their virginity to walls that will not be brought down. Marriage is presented as a state of war and conflict, and in such a view these women will stand as warriors protecting the walls of their virginity from the assault of men...